ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Sheriff Ken Mascara is warning parents to keep a closer eye on their kids’ online activity after an investigation into child predators resulted in the arrests of 23 men, mostly from St. Lucie County.

“If you have a child on the internet,” Mascara said, “someone is going to attempt to lure them on a social media site.”

Operation: Guardian Angel, a joint investigation with the South Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, took place on eight random days over the course of a month, Mascara said. Undercover deputies posed as children on websites and social media platforms and repeatedly made clear they were under age, but the men continued to pursue them.

The charges against the men, whose ages range from 20 to 79, include lewd and lascivious behavior on someone 12 to 16 years old; use of a computer to seduce, solicit or lure a child; use of a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony; traveling to meet after using a computer to lure a child; and misrepresentation of age to solicit, lure or seduce.

Mascara didn’t want to disclose the location used by deputies to meet the men or the specific online sites used in the investigation.

Deputies pretended to be 13- to 15-year-old girls and boys who were home alone during the summer, Mascara said.

Some of the men arrested lied about their ages to appear younger, Mascara said. One of them brought drugs to keep the child calm during the interaction, he later told officials.

All of them are first-time offenders, Mascara said, but officials didn’t think these instances were the first time for the men arrested.

As of Wednesday, all but two men have been released from the St. Lucie County Jail after they paid bail, Mascara said. The two men remained because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were holding them in jail.

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Twenty-three men in St. Lucie County are accused of soliciting children for sexual activity.
VIDEO CONTRIBUTED BY ST. LUCIE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE

Deputies had contact with hundreds of people during the investigation, said Sgt. Suzanne Woodward. Deputies would tell the people at least three times how young they were.

“These people are given an out several times,” Woodward said. “There is no mistake that when they decide to travel (with) what they’re traveling for, our probable cause is built. All they need to do is show up.”

One man showed up with ice cream upon request, Woodward said. A lot of them arrived with condoms.

After one man was arrested, he told deputies he knew it was a law enforcement sting but continued to travel to it because he “just wanted to see what it was all about,” said Detective Rob Barton. A lot of them said they never intended to have sex.